Alpha:HALPMEH

HALPMEH ("Help Me") is one of the Glyphs you can find in a game of Desktop Dungeons. When used, this Glyph heals a certain amount of your Health, and cures you of Poison. Initially locked and available only to the Paladin, it can become unlocked and available for all classes.

Usage

Each use of HALPMEH costs 3 Mana, except for the Wizard for whom it costs only 2 Mana, and the Berserker for whom it costs 5.

Effect

When cast, HALPMEH instantly restores a certain number of Health points, based on your current level: You get 3 Health Points per level.

In addition, HALPMEH will immediately remove the Poison effect from your hero, if it exists.

HALPMEH can only restore your health up to your Maximum. It cannot make you more than 100% healthy. Also note that characters who have more health than normal will require more castings of HALPMEH to fill their entire health bar than other characters - it does not scale with Maximum Health bonuses, only with your current level! This also works in reverse; characters with less health than normal (such as the Rogue) require fewer uses of HALPMEH to fully heal.

You can use HALPMEH repeatedly as many times as required, or as many times as your Mana allows.

Important to remember: Unlike exploring tiles to regain Health, using HALPMEH does not allow monsters to regenerate. So while you are gaining health, the monsters you were fighting do not. On the other hand, you are losing Mana at the same time. Always compare the benefits of a few extra attacks with just using the BURNDAYRAZ glyph, since often you're better off using mana for conventional spellcasting.

Availability

For a new Player Profile, HALPMEH is not available for use. To be able to use HALPMEH at all, the player must unlock the Paladin class by defeating the Normal Dungeon with a Monk.

Any game played with the Paladin will start with the HALPMEH Glyph on the starting tile. The Paladin needs to pick it up if he intends to use it. HALPMEH always appears when playing the Paladin class, regardless of any other factors.

Once the Normal Dungeon is beaten with a Paladin, HALPMEH becomes fully unlocked. From that point onwards, the HALPMEH Glyph has a chance to appear in any dungeon played, regardless of any other factors. The chance for it to appear is supposedly the same as that of other Glyphs, though this has not yet been conclusively proven.

Health to Mana Ratio

At level 1, the HALPMEH glyph restores exactly 3 points of Health for the 3 Mana points it costs to use, a ratio of 1:1 (1 mana point spent per one health point healed). At level 2, HALPMEH restores twice as much Health (6 points) for the same Mana cost, a ratio of 1:2.
However, the hero's Maximum Health is now doubled as well, so it will still take the same number of uses of HALPMEH to restore your Health from 1 to Maximum. The ratio between Maximum Health and the power of HALPMEH remains constant, assuming no other factors affect your Maximum Health.

Due to this constant ratio, another way to express the effect of HALPMEH is to say that it heals "30% of your Maximum Health" per use. Again you must remember that if Maximum Health is altered (either up or down), the equilibrium is broken and the above statement is no longer correct. If any effect has altered your hero's Maximum Health, always remember that such factors do not alter the number of Health points you receive from each casting of HALPMEH.

One thing that is important to note is that HALPMEH maintains the same ratio as healing through exploration. When exploring you will gain 1 Mana point, and 1 Health point per character level. So at level 1 the ratio is 1:1, at level 2 the ratio is 1:2, and so on, corresponding exactly to the increased ratio of Mana to Health used by HALPMEH.

This is important to remember for various reasons, one of which is the special relationship HALPMEH has with another Glyph - BLUDTUPOWA. This is explained below.

Stand-alone Use

Most commonly, HALPMEH is used by Melee-oriented characters as a way of increasing their staying power during combat, and make use of the mana they keep hoarding up. They will fight a monster until they can fight no more, then use their left-over Mana to restore themselves to a fighting state, and continue the battle. This may allow the hero to deliver several more hits - hopefully enough to finish the monster off.

This tactic is most preferred by characters who rely on superior defenses - each point of Health restored in a battle is much more useful than for other characters. On the flipside, Melee-oriented characters who have powerful attacks and low health are usually better off sticking with CYDSTEPP - healing themselves might be a waste of Mana. Still, your playing style is really the only thing that determines whether HALPMEH is the best choice at any given time.

Spell Combos

APHEELSIK

This is a very basic combo, used by characters who rely mostly or solely on Melee attacks. They will wear down the monster by attacking it until their Health is spent, use mana to regenerate, attack again, and then use the last 5 Mana points to cast APHEELSIK on the enemy. They are then free to explore and regain both health (for another attack run) and Mana (for more healing and poison as required).

This combo requires very little Mana to use - anywhere from 7 and upwards. The more Mana you have, the more times you can heal mid-battle, and so the more damage you can do to your foe in each attack run.

BLUDTUPOWA

This is perhaps one of the most interesting combinations there are. HALPMEH and BLUDTUPOWA are essentially polar opposites: One restores Health at the expense of Mana, and the other restores Mana at the expense of Health. Although they are used somewhat differently, the overall effect is staggeringly similar.

The resemblance goes beyond the superficial: Both glyphs have the same exact ratio between Mana and Health.
To see how this works, acquire both Glyphs, and explore three tiles of the dungeon. At level 1, you receive 3 Mana and 3 Health - one of each for every tile.
Now explore 3 tiles with BLUDTUPOWA turned on, you receive 6 Mana and 0 Health. Cast HALPMEH once, and you'll lose 3 Mana and gain 3 Health. So basically, you've just gained 3 Health and 3 Mana from exploration - the same as you did before without using the Glyphs.

The matching ratios mean that when you have both Glyphs in your possession, you can basically control your Mana and Health intake as accurately as required. You can choose exactly when to restore Mana and when to restore Health as the situation dictates.

It's all down to micromanagement - and a player skilled with micromanaging his status can seriously cut down on the number of tiles they explore. In other words, you'll reduce the number of tiles explored for no real gain (or for less than ideal gain). An actual example of how to use this would be very difficult, which is why this combo is not really commonly used. However, if you can learn how to use it, you'll find that you can start taking on the bosses with a significant part of the dungeon left unexplored and ripe for post-battle regeneration.

Naturally, with the use of APHEELSIK as the third Glyph, maximizing gain from tile exploration becomes a winning strategy!

Specific Classes

Paladin

Choosing a Paladin for a dungeon will always spawn the HALPMEH Glyph on the starting tile (see above). Paladins rely on HALPMEH together with their high Physical resistance to basically outlast high-level enemies. They take less damage than normal, so restoring health can allow them to prolong fights far past the normal length dictated by their Maximum Health. This is their primary method for taking out bosses, as well.

Monk

Perhaps the greatest benefit from HALPMEH comes to the Monk. With 50% resistance to both Physical and Magical attacks, a Monk can be said to make twice as much out of every Health point he has as any other character. Therefore, converting mana into Health allows the Monk to prolong a battle considerably, enough to duke it out with extremely hardy foes.

Remember however that your Attack rating is lower than other characters', so it is almost always necessary to have a second or even third Glyph to back you up, for instance APHEELSIK or even BYSSEPS. And a large Mana pool will help considerably.

Sorcerer

This spellcaster surprisingly benefits greatly from HALPMEH. Sorcerers are more melee-oriented than other spellcasters - they need to get into Melee combat to make use of their terrific Mana Shield ability, and being able to regenerate health for another attack is a great help towards this.

Even more importantly, the Sorcerer has the innate ability to regenerate 2 Health points per every 1 Mana spent. Since HALPMEH costs mana to use, this changes the formula for your HALPMEH Health restoration to "3 points per level + 6". With their increased Mana pool (+5 points), this means they can cast HALPMEH more often too.

The combination of all these things together makes HALPMEH one of the best Glyphs a Sorcerer can find.

Transmuter

The Transmuter does not regain Health from exploring tiles. Instead he uses ENDISWAL to destroy walls, gaining 2 mana points per wall.

Acquiring HALPMEH can be very useful, because walls are a scarce commodity. In some dungeons you'll find that you're running out of walls rapidly. With HALPMEH, you can use up the ample mana you get from exploration to heal yourself. This is especially useful because Transmuters tend to explore much more of the dungeon than other characters (usually ALL of it) thanks to their ability to tunnel rapidly through walls.

Combine with BLUDTUPOWA for even better results.

Vampire

It's important to note that HALPMEH is of absolutely no value to the Vampire. When used, it will only drain you of Health (since Vampires pay Health for Glyph use instead of Mana), and will not heal you at all, regardless of your level or any other factors.

When encountered in a dungeon, you can safely convert HALPMEH.

HALPMEH and the Gods

Several Gods in the game have various opinions about the use of HALPMEH - they may favour it or reject it, depending on their own particular creeds.

Glowing Guardian

The Glowing Guardian respects healing, even if you do it on yourself. Each time you use HALPMEH (even if your Health is already full), you will gain 1 Piety point from Glowing Guardian.

Another way to make good use of HALPMEH to gain favor with Glowing Guardian is its ability to cure poison. Being poisoned by a monster grants +1 Piety from the Guardian, and a single use of HALPMEH is enough to cure that poison. This nets you +2 Piety for each Poison/Cure cycle, costing you a little Health (or possibly none!) and 3 Mana.

Also note that you should never convert HALPMEH while worshipping Glowing Guardian, for he will immediately renounce you!

Dracul

On joining Dracul, the HALPMEH Glyph is automatically destroyed - whether it is in your Glyph Slots or anywhere in the dungeon. 'Nuff said.

Taurog

As with any other Glyph, Taurog will penalize you -5 Piety points every time you use HALPMEH. In addition, he will halve your health, so the Healing effect received from the Glyph will usually be nullified.

Binlor Ironshield

Binlor is also averse to the use of spells, and will inflict a penalty of -1 Piety point per each use of HALPMEH, as with all other Glyphs (except ENDISWAL).

Mystera Annur

HALPMEH is a good Glyph you can use just for gaining Piety with Mystera Annur. She will grant you +1 Piety for each use of the Glyph. Of course, the Health you regain is basically "lost", since followers of Mystera have no use for their Health anyway (unless you are a Bloodmage) - they cause virtually no damage in Melee combat. If you have a choice, go for BYSSEPS, which is even cheaper to cast.

Other than for Piety gain, followers of Mystera have no use for HALPMEH. Note however that converting the Glyph will cause Piety loss of -10 Points, just as it does for converting any other Glyph while worshipping this arcane goddess.